Encontrei um pouco de informação sobre as classificações da Nielsen para o programa em tvobscurities.com :
The pilot for Mrs. Columbo did well, ranking 18th [most watched show of the week], but when the series moved to its regular Thursday time slot it slipped to 45th
A fonte para isto é aparentemente The TV Column por John Carmody na edição de 7 de março de 1979 do Washington Post , embora eu não consiga encontrar nenhum arquivo do jornal para confirmar isso.
Além de alterar timeslots, houve problemas com a produção, conforme documentado em Kate Mulgrew site da :
The third episode was pulled and replaced with an old “Quincy” show when it was apparent that the show simply would not be finished. The cast and crew got a breather, but remained behind schedule.
Então já parece que o show estava sendo configurado para falhar. Essas informações são armazenadas em backup na seção Guia do episódio do site:
Monday February 26th, 1979: 2 Hour pilot "Word Games" broadcast
Thursday March 1st, 1979: "Murder Is A Parlor Game" broadcast
Thursday March 15th, 1979: "A Riddle For Puppets" broadcast
Então, em vez do episódio de 8 de março, eles receberam um anúncio da NBC:
On March 8, after “Mrs. Columbo” had been on the air for exactly one week, NBC announced in a carefully worded statement that the show was being “dropped” from the schedule. Dropped, not canceled. NBC promptly announced six new shows, also in “limited” runs—sort of replacements for the replacements.
Mais tarde, no artigo do tvobscurities, eles mencionam as consequências entre os produtores do Columbo original e da Sra. Columbo, então parece que eles tinham funcionários completamente diferentes por causa disso, o que não poderia ter ajudado:
In early 1979, Fred Silverman had the idea to feature “Lt. Columbo’s wife” (often talked about by Columbo, but never seen) in her own mystery series, but creator/producers Richard Levinson and William Link wanted no part it, as they’d previously made a pact with Peter Falk “never to show Mrs. Columbo”. Silverman bypassed them, and got another Universal producer, James McAdams, then David Levinson to film the series. In an effort to draw more attention to Kate Mulgrew’s character, the series was quickly retitled Kate Columbo. Yet the series continued to slip in the ratings. Silverman, however, renewed it for the fall, finally deciding to sever all ties to Columbo, altering Kate’s last name to “Callahan”, and again retitling it Kate Loves A Mystery It finally went off the air for good at the end of the year.
Como programas como Firefly provaram, mesmo que um programa seja aclamado pela crítica, bagunçar com a programação de transmissão pode irreparavelmente danificar o potencial do programa, especialmente em 1979, quando os gravadores de vídeo eram raros e o DVR era um sonho.